Happily Ever After
by SeaSaltChocolate
Summary: A series of some clichéd, some normal, oneshots. Plenty of FAX and EGGY to go around – you can't spell cliché without FAX. Okay, you can, but you get my point.
1. Home Again

_**Summary: A series of some clichéd, some normal, oneshots. Plenty of FAX and EGGY to go around – you can't spell **__**cliché**__** without **__**FAX**__**. Okay, you can, but you get my point.**_

_**Rating: T**_

**A/N: Hey peeps, it's me Michelle here. I'm gonna make this clear from the beginning: this is a set of partly CLICHED drabbles. Meaning I don't want flames and complaints about how clichéd these stories are – they're MEANT to be like that. Capiche? :) **

**Okay, now that **_**that's**_** clear…**

**Concerning updates: no was José am I gonna promise scheduled updates. Nuh-uh. Sorry. I will try, I repeat **_**try**_** to update once a week – I have a few chapters ready to go. But school's started, so…**

**Disclaimer: Um, yeah, I am so TOTALLY JP.**

…

**Okay, not really. Don't sue me.**

Chapter One: Home Again

I could see it, the house, from way up here in the sky.

Just seeing the sheets out on the clothesline made my heart ache.

I wanted to be there so bad…

_**Wait for the rest of your Flock, **_said the Voice.

_Screw you_, I thought, and angled myself downward. I poured on the speed, until the wind was whipping at my face so hard I thought my first layer of skin layer might peel off.

My arms touched the soft grass first, and I swung into a roll, before standing up and dusting myself off. My eyes flashed to the empty driveway, and I had a horrible thought – were Mom and Ella even home? But right as I had the thought, the front door flew open and Ella came running out at full speed.

"Max!" she screamed. I had barely opened my mouth to reply when I was hit by what felt like a ton of bricks. I fell backward, but used the momentum to swing my right leg up and catch whatever it was that hit me straight in the gut.

"OW, Max!" Gazzy moaned as he hopped off me. The rest of the Flock had landed next to us in a more graceful manner. "That hurt! Hey Ella! Hey Dr. M!" he grinned a toothy smile and waved at Mom, who had appeared in the door.

Her eyes filled with tears. "Max! You're back!"

I stood up and ran over to her to hug her. "Of course I'm back, Mom. I said I would be, remember?" My voice was muffled because my head was buried in her shoulder, but she laughed and hugged me back, hard.

"Of course, Max, of course. I'm just so glad to have you home again," and upon the word 'home' I started bawling.

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_Cookies._

It was only to be expected. The second the Flock reached the kitchen they all started pulling the ingredients out of cupboards. Mom taught them how to make her famous chocolate chip cookies last time we were home, but I was still surprised they remembered everything.

"_Baking _soda, Gaz, not Coke," Nudge said.

Or maybe not…

I looked at all of them, their faces bright and happy, and saw that even Fang was helping. _Aw…_ But wait – where was Iggy? And, I realized, Ella?

Iggy + Ella + nowhere to be seen = suspicious. But a _good_ kind of suspicious. A _maybe-they'll-finally-get-together_ kind of suspicious.

No one else seemed to notice their absence, and I snuck out of the room undetected. I crept up the stairs and saw Iggy standing in front of Ella's door. I waited on the top stair for him to move, but he didn't. He seemed to be gathering his courage.

Finally, he took a deep breath and pushed open the door. Tiptoeing up to the open door and peeking in the crack, I saw Ella sitting motionless at her desk.

She tensed when Iggy put his hands in her hair.

"…Iggy?" she whispered.

"Shh…" he said, in the most un-Iggy like way. Then slowly, he began to pull the pins out of her tightly coiled braids. Her eyes closed as she relaxed.

I slipped out of the room, unnoticed.

Some things are better left private.

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**A/N: and there's a little Eggy for you! Come on. Don't tell me you didn't get little fuzzies in your tummy?**

**If you want Ella and Iggy to stay together, review! Or even if you don't, review anyway!**


	2. Gone

_**Summary: A series of some clichéd, some normal, oneshots. Plenty of FAX and EGGY to go around – you can't spell **__**cliché**__** without **__**FAX**__**. Okay, you can, but you get my point.**_

_**Rating: T**_

**A/N: Again, this is a clichéd, c-l-i-c-h-é-d drabble. If you're allergic, don't read it.**

**Yesterday my mom asked me what year it was. I worry about her…**

**Disclaimer: If I was JP, I would buy myself a little villa in Greenwich, England and sip Earl Grey tea all day just so that when a friend called to see what I was doing I could say, "Me? Oh, just sitting in my English cottage sipping tea. How are you?"**

**However, I am currently sitting in my living room somewhere in the expansive US, and thus you can conclude: I am not JP.**

Chapter Two: Empty

"My wings… they're gone."

There was a shocked silence.

"G-gone?" Nudge whispered, "How can they be _gone?_"

I swallowed past the lump in my throat. "The-they removed them." I muttered.

Gazzy let out a strangled laugh. "You're just joking, right Max? You've got to be joking!"

Tears gathered in my eyes. "No Gaz, I'm not."

Angel started to cry soundlessly, and Iggy came up behind me and put his hands on my back. A second later he jerked them back as though they had been scalded.

"There's nothing _there!_" he gasped. I was too miserable to respond. My eyes flitted to the person I was most worried about – the only one who hadn't reacted. He was staring straight ahead, unmoving.

"Fang?" I whispered.

"Show me."

My eyes widened.

_"What?"_ Nudge cried.

"Show me," he repeated. Nudge opened began to protest, but I clapped a hand over her mouth.

"It's okay. All you turn around."

"Max, you don't have to do this," Nudge said. I just shook my head.

She was wrong.

I did have to do this.

I pulled my shirt off and grabbed a blanket for cover. Once I was sure it was secure around me with nothing showing, I said "Okay," and everyone turned around.

Nudge gasped, and was for once speechless.

Gazzy's eyes popped out, and Angel let out a faint cry and ran from the room. I felt Iggy's hands again and tensed.

"Wow…" he breathed, "It's so… empty! Blank!"

I knew what they were seeing – faint red marks where my wings had been and deep indents on each side of my spine where they fit up against my back.

Fang spoke, his voice flat, emotionless. "Put your shirt on."

Wordlessly, I pulled it back over my head.

I heard Fang's footsteps fade away. And then…_nothing._

I didn't have my wings. I didn't have Fang. _It's over…_ I thought, and sank to the floor.

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**A/N: Okay, I know that this one was a bit OOC, but it fit the clichéd theme quite well. And I know it's kinda short, but I drew the picture before I wrote the story…**

**Reviewers get Krispy Kremes!**


	3. Gone Part 2

_**Summary: A series of some clichéd, some normal, oneshots. Plenty of FAX and EGGY to go around – you can't spell **__**cliché**__** without **__**FAX**__**. Okay, you can, but you get my point.**_

_**Rating: T**_

**A/N: originally, I didn't have a sequel planned, but since so many people got the wrong idea – thinking Fang was gone for good – I decided to clear things up.**

**My bus's tires caught fire and I had to walk home. This is the second time it's happened. My life is so **_**normal…**_

**Disclaimer: The earth is round. The sun shines. The sky is blue. Sumo wrestlers are fat. Hotel pillows are fluffy. I am not James Patterson. **

Chapter Three: Recovered

It wasn't easy for me to pick myself up off the floor after Fang walked out of the room, but that was what I did.

"Max?" came Nudge's scared voice. "Are you okay?"

_No I'm not okay!_ I wanted to scream._ I don't have wings and Fang just walked out on me!_ But I kept my calm and said in an even voice, "Yes honey, I'm alright."

Tears burned the backs of my eyes, begging for release, but I stayed resolute. I couldn't crumble. Not here, anyway. Not in front of Nudge, Gazzy, and Iggy.

Gazzy came up from behind me and hugged me tightly. "It's gonna be okay, Max," he said, his voice clogged with tears, "I promise. We- we can carry you if we have to, we won't mind!"

It broke my heart that _he_ was comforting _me_ when it was so clear he was on the verge of bawling. I turned around so it became a proper hug. "Thanks little man, that means a lot to me."

"What are you gonna do about Fang?" he looked up at me with round, scared eyes.

"He just needed time to mull it over," I reassured him, though I wasn't so sure. "I'll go get him now and he'll tell you himself that it okay, alright?"

He nodded and gave me one last squeeze before letting go.

Angel's room was my first stop. I knocked softly, more out politeness than anything else – she would have sensed me coming.

_Come in,_ she said in my head. I slipped inside and plopped down on her pink bed. She was laying on her side, hugging Celeste closely to her. "Ange? Are you okay?"

_I'm fine._

I sighed and reached over to stroke her curls. "Angel, it's just my wings. I'm not dying, right?"

When there was no answer, verbal or otherwise, I continued. "I mean, maybe we could, like, go back to Itex and I dunno, force the scientists to graft some different wings onto my back or something." Even to my own ears the idea sounded ridiculous.

_It _is_ ridiculous. _

"Who knows, maybe we could start living a normal life or something. Like, actually go to school and stuff. Come on, Angel, try to see the bright side!"

"Max," she finally said, rolling over to look at me, "your _wings_ are _gone_, and you're telling me to see the bright side of things?"

"Get that sarcasm from me?" I asked playfully, but she just stared at me. "Okay, fine. So my wings are gone. We'll get by somehow, we always have before!"

"You had _wings_ before, Max." Her voice was small.

I patted her hair one last time before standing up. "Yeah, I had wings before, but it wasn't the wings that go us out of bad stuff was it? It was my brain, and one other thing."

_Us. _

"Yup, us, and that's what we'll make do with for now!"

_Iggy and Gazzy are trying to invent mechanical wings that you could wear. Its not gonna work._

"That's sweet of them," I said with a smile, "But I better go find Fang now." I pecked her cheek and was almost out the door when I remembered something. "Angel-"

_He's in the woods, about 150 meters in._

"Thanks, sweetie."

I hurried to my room and through open the window. One foot was on the ledge before I realized, _duh, you cant jump. You don't have _wings_, moron._

My throat hurt as I took my foot away. Of course I couldn't go out the window. I couldn't fly. Duh. That was why I was in this big mess…

Stepping out the front door and staring at the trees, I realized just how far away they actually were. It didn't even take 30 seconds by air, but by the time I reached the woods at least five minutes had gone by. It took another three to get past the thick undergrowth clogging the outskirts.

Finally, though, I was in.

I didn't bother calling for Fang as I walked; the leaves and twigs under my feet were warning enough.

I finally found him, ten minutes later, perched on a fallen log. This made me hide a smile – it meant he'd known I was coming, and chosen his seating accordingly. I clambered onto a mossy spot next to him, and sighed loudly to get his attention.

"Fang," I began, and then got stuck. What was I supposed to say? Quit pouting, because it's going to be okay? But it wasn't going to be okay, and we both knew it. "Fang," I tried again, "Fang, just listen, okay? I'm still me. I'm still Max, Maximum Ride, with my washed out brown hair and tree-trunk brown eyes. Still me, with my hatred of all things frilly. Still my Converse-clad self. Still pig-headed. Still pushy, annoying, bossy me. So…" When I looked at him, he hadn't moved.

"So deal with it already, moron!" I yelled in frustration. "I don't have wings anymore, so what! You cant sit around and stare at stupid caterpillars all day!"

For the first time, I saw something in his eyes flicker.

And without warning, he suddenly swung around and leaned so close that I could feel his breath. My heart sped up in a totally stupid way, the way Nudge's _Seventeen_'s said it would.

"Yeah, I know, Max," he said, and then he was kissing me.

The space between us and the fact that we were sitting precariously on a rotting log made it quite difficult to stay together, something Fang realized quickly. Smoothly, without breaking our contact, he slid both of us off the log so we were up against each other on the leaf-strewn ground.

His lips were wind-chapped but soft; his hands, gently holding my face, rough with calluses.

We pulled apart what seemed like an eternity later, breathing heavier than we should have been.

"What-" I had to take a breath, "-was that all about?"

He cracked a smile. "You saying you didn't like it?" Part of me was relieved that his usual arrogance hadn't disappeared when he went all moody; the other half just wanted to punch him.

"I'm not saying anything. I'm just wondering what brought it on." I turned towards the trees in front of us, acting for all the world like our little make-out session had absolutely no effect on me.

He shrugged. "Just felt like you needed some support."

I turned on him incredulously. "_I_ needed some support? Because I was totally the one who ran away when I heard the news! No, actually, I wasn't! That was _you_, if you recall. _I_ was the one who bravely came and told my family first thing!"

"And that," said Fang triumphantly, "is why I kissed you."

"Because I told you guys?"

"Because you're right. You're still you, and you just proved it. Arguing with me to show that you aren't wrong, it's so _you_. So Max."

I stared at him. "So… you don't care? That I don't have wings? That I'm a freak, only this time a different kind?"

He put his arm around me. I was tempted to make some sarcastic comment about this being like a chick flick, but it felt too good to give up.

"No, Max, you're not a freak. You never have been. And I don't care that you don't have wings, as long as you always stay _Max_." His half-smile only made me love him more.

"Great. So that means you'll be the one carrying me everywhere, right?" His eyes widened.

"Um. Yeah, sure…"

I laughed and leaned into him. "Kidding. We'll figure something out. Maybe I can get a hang glider and have you pull me everywhere…"

His hands were gently massaging circles in my empty back, and though it felt odd, it was nice too.

"We'll get through this," I repeated, and Fang murmured in consent. My eyes closed as the muscles in my back loosened and I relaxed.

Everything would get worked out in due time, but for now, I was happy with sitting on the soft pine needles and letting Fang lull me to sleep.

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**A/N: +collapses on bed in exhaustion+ Do you have any IDEA how hard that little romance scene was on me? I cant write romance, I just cant. It takes everything out of me. So please, people, cheer me up and tell me it was worth my time with a review?**


	4. Toblerone

_**Summary: A series of some clichéd, some normal, oneshots. Plenty of FAX and EGGY to go around – you can't spell **__**cliché**__** without **__**FAX**__**. Okay, you can, but you get my point.**_

_**Rating: T**_

**A/N: This one isn't so much clichéd as it is just plain silly. It's a bit short too, but at least I updated!**

**My mom actually kept me up till two in the morning so I could help her with her work stuff on the computer. Is it me or is that not normal parental behavior?**

**Disclaimer: **_**–noun**_

**1.**** the act of disclaiming; the renouncing, repudiating, or denying of a claim; disavowal.**

**2.**** a person who disclaims.**

**3.**** a statement, document, or assertion that disclaims responsibility, affiliation, etc.; disavowal; denial.***

**I disclaim Maximum Ride, and all characters copyrighted by James Patterson.**

Chapter Four: Toblerone

"Max…" Nudge said, tugging on my arm, "can I talk to you about something?"

_Shoot. _Did she want to have "the talk" with me?

"Um… sure sweetie, but if it's anything, like, _big_, then you can always talk to my mom about it. You know that, right?"

She just nodded and pulled me over to a small gap between some trees.

"Um…" she seemed nervous, "What's a-" she looked at the ground and finished in a whisper, "_Toblerone_?"

I stared at her in disbelief. "A Toblerone? Where did you hear _that_?"

"Iggy and Fang were talking about it. Is it something bad? Like, not nice?"

A nervous Nudge, it seemed, talked a lot less than a cheerful Nudge.

I laughed. "Don't worry, it's not anything inappropriate. It's a kind of chocolate. What were they saying anyway?"

She stared at me. "Chocolate?" her laugh filled the clearing. "Oops… Iggy was saying how he never had one, and Fang was talking about how good it was. So I thought…" she laughed again, and I noticed her cheeks were a bit pink.

"Yep. See? Chocolate."

We both walked back to the rest of the group, and ignored their curious glances.

Angel laughed, and Gazzy demanded to know what was going on.

"Girl stuff," I said to Gazzy's constant prodding, and he hastily backed off.

"Girl stuff" indeed.

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***Reference: **

**A/N: Poor Nudge. Imagine having to sit on that all day. That Fang and Iggy were having talks about "naughty" stuff… Well, that's what she **_**thought**_** anyway.**

**I have a special guest here today, for the review plea:**

**Smokey: Only YOU can make Michelle happy with reviews!**


	5. Author's Note

**I'm really sorry. I know everybody out there hates Author's Notes. (Though for the life of me, I can't understand why – its like a little chunk of the authors very own story!)**

**But anyway. I know you do. So, sorry.**

**I cant continue. I have to put Happily Ever After on temporary hiatus. I mean, I know I've been sucky with updating anyway, but now its official. Believe me, I'm crying inside too.**

**I'm really just too busy. I cant do it! I don't know how some people update every day, I really don't. Whoever they are, I admire them.**

**So….. that's it. Thanks, all, for sticking with me. I swear that this isn't forever, just till I get my life back on track and school and stuff slows down. (The fact that it's the start of a new semester doesn't help.)**

**+wipes tears+ So, bye for now!**

**-michelle**


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